James Baldwin, Ignorance Allied with Power, and the Importance of Poets and Children
In the United States of America, we’re fortunate American powers—those pale, corporate men who believe in the almighty accumulation of wealth and acquiring monstrous power and not much else—treat children and poets as inconsequential, some innocuous foolishness by those without leverage if they ever think of them at all. Powerful authoritarian men might still consider swatting and killing a bee in their presence but never notice a butterfly. In many parts of the world, throu
In Defense of and Recommendation for the Long Novel Read
How many times have you heard a reader remark, “If the book doesn’t grab me in the first few pages, I’m done?” Or the reader might state, “I don’t read anything over 250 pages,” as if there is a limit on how many words the brain is able to handle. The answer: a lot. Not every 850-page tome is worth your time, but many of the greatest works of literature are lengthy, and they are, quite simply, transformational. Having just finished The Agony and the Ecstasy, A Biographical No
